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Once the first
step is taken, it would become a pressing
matter to incorporate the Republic of Adygeya,
which lies in the valleys of the Kuban and
Laba rivers at the foothills of the North-western
Caucasus Range. On July 27th 1922 Adygeya was
established as an autonomous region (oblast)
in the Krasnodar Krai, or District. It shifted
many times between various administrative
units until it was reincorporated in the
Krasnodar Krai as an autonomous region in
1937. In 1991, it was upgraded to a republic
within the Russian Federation, and the
president and legislative assembly (Xase) were
elected and its government formed.
Adygeya has a
population of about 500,000, which ranks it
71st in the Russian Federation, and an area of
about 7,800 sq. km, 77th in terms of size. The
density is about 65 people per sq. km. Urban
population is about 270,000 (54%), and the
rural population 230,000 (46%). The Republic
is made up of 7 administrative rayons (regions),
2 towns and 5 urban-type settlements. Maikop,
which has a population of 180,000, roughly 70%
of the urban population, has been the capital
of the republic since 1936. Prior to that
Krasnodar, which is just outside the republic,
was the administrative centre. Maikop was
founded in 1858 and is famous for its oil
fields. Its airport provides transport service
to other regions of the Russian Federation.
Adygeysk, formerly Teuchezhsk, which has a
population of about 20,000, is the other major
city in the republic. It is an important
industrial centre.
The republic is
made up of several ethnic groups: The Adygey,
who number about 180,000 people (36%), the
Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians and Cossacks),
Armenians and Tatars. It has the highest
percentage of ethnic Russians (~ 55%) of all
the North Caucasian republics. There are also
considerable Adygeyan communities just outside
the republic in the Krasnodar Krai. The Adygey
are ethnically related to the Cherkess and
Kabardians (all three groups use the self-designation
Adygha), and their language is mutually
intelligible with Kabardian. The Adygey, who
were made up of about twelve tribe-nations
prior to the Russian conquest of Circassia,
were the people most devastated by the Russo-Circassian
war. Many of the tribes have ceased to exist.
A whole nation, the Ubykh, was exterminated.
The Russians extirpated the mighty and
numerous Abzakh who used to form the link
between the Eastern Circassians (Kabardians)
and the western tribes (Ch'axe). This severed
the connection between the two groups. The
consequences of this separation will be
discussed shortly.
This stage is
not as theoretically easy as the previous one.
The first real obstacle is that Adygeya is
physically separated from both Kabardino-Balkaria
and Karachay-Cherkessia. Maikop is at a
distance of 160 km from Cherkessk. The
shortest distance between Karachay-Cherkessia
and Adygeya is about 30 km, and between the
latter and Abkhazia about the same. The easy
way out is to claim a strip of land between
Adygheya and Karachay-Cherkessia (and a
further corridor extended to Abkhazia at a
later stage). Another solution would be to
join the two republics by incorporating the
region between the south-east of Adygeya and
the west of Karachay-Cherkessia (and the north
of Abkhazia at a later stage). This area of
about 1,000 sq. km is mountainous and sparsely
populated. This is justified from a historical
point of view because prior to the conquest of
Circassia by the Russians all the intervening
land belonged to the Circassians. The present
day residents of these strips must be given
the choice of either becoming citizens of the
new state or given compensation to resettle
somewhere else. These solutions entail that
new roads and other connections between the
two republics may have to be made.
The second
problem is that Adygeya is economically
integrated with the surrounding territories.
Again this is no disadvantage because the
newly created state will by necessity maintain
and develop its economic ties with Russia. A
disruption would be most detrimental to both
parties. There is already a contract of co-operation
between Adygeya and its Circassian sisters,
Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia.
A third problem
is that the percentage of Slavs in the new
state would become very high (40%). Again this
imbalance could be redressed by encouraging
the diaspora Circassians to resettle in the
Caucasus (there are more than a million
Circassians outside the Caucasus, though how
many more is a matter of conjecture). There
are hundreds of Circassian villages in the
Turkish countryside whose populations are
absolutely indigent. These villagers may be
persuaded to return "home", as it were. This
political step is feasible, but it must be
preceded by a will to action. Recently the
Circassians in Kosovo Polje in the Yugoslav
Federation have been voluntarily transferred
to their ancestral lands in Adygeya to escape
the ethnic war in the province. This has set a
landmark precedent for Circassian repatriation.
If the Karachay-Balkar are threatened by this,
then they may also encourage the considerable
immigrant communities in Turkey to move back
to the Caucasus.
At this stage
it is worthwhile to consider the situation of
the Shapsigh community on the Black Sea shore
near Sochi, which numbers about 15,000 people.
Its homeland used to be an autonomous area
within the Krasnodar Krai, but it was
abolished in the 1920's and at present enjoys
no political status. It is physically
separated from the Adygey Republic by about 20
km. However, it could be connected to it and
the nearby Abkhaz Republic by two corridors,
or by incorporating the intervening territory,
which historically belonged to the Circassian
nation. |
